Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days
Continue reading...A pair of debenture tickets changed hands this week for a sum far beyond the means of ordinary tennis fans
Like many of us, Marcos Ortega enters the Wimbledon public ticket ballot every year in the hope of seeing some championship tennis. In seven straight years of trying, however, he has never got lucky. So he was delighted – initially, at least – to learn there was a way to secure a ticket for every game played on Centre Court.
But Ortega’s hopeful delight quickly turned to anger when he discovered that it would cost him £293,000.
Continue reading...As a host of countries move to rein in social media use by children, could this be technology’s big tobacco moment?
Continue reading...For better or worse, the inaugural edition of the inter-hemisphere tournament launches with even more long-haul flights in a drive to attract greater interest
Brave is one word for it. Let’s launch a must-see global rugby tournament in direct opposition to the football World Cup, Wimbledon, the Open and Formula One. Necessitating even more long-haul flights and an enlarged carbon footprint in an era of soaring jet-fuel prices and climate-change concerns. And with some of the world’s most box-office players unavailable. Right-ho.
Welcome, for better or worse, to the inaugural Nations Championship, which kicks off in Christchurch, Tokyo, Sydney, Cardiff, Johannesburg and Córdoba next weekend. Spot the odd ones out, by the way. Yes, contrary to the atlas, Cardiff and Tokyo are now southern hemisphere venues. For various reasons Fiji are “hosting” Wales beside the swaying palms of Tiger Bay while Japan, for the sake of numerical convenience, are in with the traditional southern powerhouses.
Continue reading...Arabic’s rich history of poetry lends itself well to ‘beautiful commentary that … sounds like a love letter to football’
Even before Cristiano Ronaldo’s close-range shot had hit the back of net, the commentator had begun shouting. “Allllllllaaaaaaah!!!!” exclaimed Amer al-Khudhiri, an Omani football announcer for BeIN Sports, as the Portugal star scored his first goal of the 2026 World Cup against Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
He took a deep breath and then began his soliloquy. “I knew you were coming for revenge. I knew you would answer everyone, the world, the World Cup, the doubters, those who have lost their memory,” al-Khudhiri said. “Oh history, put Ronaldo here as Portgual’s all-time top scorer, through all its history. Allah, Allah, Allah!”
Continue reading...LGBTQ+ people continue to reel from stigma spread by 16 years of rightwing populist government, says organiser
One year ago they marched in record numbers, risking fines and facial recognition technology to challenge Viktor Orbán and his government’s escalating crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. On Saturday, Hungarians will again take to the streets for Budapest Pride, this time in a march marked by the country’s sweeping political changes.
The event, which is expected to unfold peacefully after police gave it the green light, will be a rallying cry of a community that has resisted all efforts to silence it, said Petra Buzás, part of the organising team.
Continue reading...A pool manager invoked safety to bar non-German speakers during the heatwave. With the far right soaring, the move is making everyone less safe
Humans are vulnerable in water. Beaches have red flags; swimming pools have flashy warning signs to remind us of our vulnerability when we just want to cool down in the midst of a searing heatwave. Pool rules are essential, especially when children are around, or tourists who don’t know about the local safety measures. With pictograms and whistling lifeguards, swimming pools usually manage to communicate danger without requiring visitors to pass a language test at the entrance. Until now, that is.
In the eastern German city of Halle, a public swimming lake turned away visitors who did not speak German during one of the hottest weeks of the year. The operator of the Heidebad natural pool at Heidesee lake, Mathias Nobel, argued that people without sufficient language skills may fail to understand the rules and thereby put themselves at risk. He said that as a trained lifeguard, he recently had to rescue a small child without armbands from the water, since the lake, a flooded former opencast mine, had a steeply sloping shoreline.
Continue reading...
"The US government has allowed Anthropic to release its powerful Mythos AI model to select companies and organizations," reports CNN, "revising license requirements after ordering an export block earlier this month in the wake of national security fears."
Since the export ban earlier in June, "Anthropic has worked with the US government to address risks associated with the Covered Models," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote to the company in a letter dated Friday. In light of progress in that work, Lutnick wrote, "I have determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model."
The letter does not include permission for Anthropic to release Fable, a less powerful version of Mythos. "We received notice from the US government that Mythos 5, our strongest cybersecurity model, can be redeployed to a small group of cyber defenders and infrastructure providers," Anthropic said in a statement...
Conversations between Anthropic and the government are expected to continue into the weekend, with an eye to restoring access to Fable, as well, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN.
Since the export ban earlier in June, "Anthropic has worked with the US government to address risks associated with the Covered Models," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote to the company in a letter dated Friday. In light of progress in that work, Lutnick wrote, "I have determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model."
The letter does not include permission for Anthropic to release Fable, a less powerful version of Mythos. "We received notice from the US government that Mythos 5, our strongest cybersecurity model, can be redeployed to a small group of cyber defenders and infrastructure providers," Anthropic said in a statement...
Conversations between Anthropic and the government are expected to continue into the weekend, with an eye to restoring access to Fable, as well, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
banzainetsurfer has added a photo to the pool:
Vanaf 1 juli verandert er iets voor iedereen die een verkeersboete te laat betaalt: het CJIB gaat werken met een nieuwe, opvallende gele herinneringsbrief. Die moet voorkomen dat mensen onnodig dure aanmaningen krijgen en helpt om boetes toch op tijd te voldoen.
De gele brief valt direct op: de onderkant is knalgeel en bedoeld als signaal om de envelop niet gedachteloos bij het oud papier te leggen. Wie zijn boete na ongeveer acht weken nog niet heeft betaald, krijgt deze gratis waarschuwing met twee extra weken betaaltermijn. In die periode blijft het boetebedrag gelijk en komen er geen extra kosten bovenop.
Wie na de gele brief nog steeds niet betaalt, valt terug in het oude systeem van verhogingen. Dan gaat de boete eerst keer 1,5 en kan daarna verdubbelen: een boete van 50 euro wordt zo 75 euro en uiteindelijk 150 euro. Ook wijst het CJIB in de gele herinnering nadrukkelijk op de mogelijkheid van een betalingsregeling, zodat mensen de boete in termijnen kunnen aflossen.
Omdat de brief zo herkenbaar is, ligt phishing via nepbrieven op de loer. Daarom waarschuwt het CJIB om niet zomaar QR-codes op een brief te scannen en bij twijfel altijd via DigiD in te loggen op de officiële site om te controleren of er daadwerkelijk een boete openstaat
Door de uitzonderlijke hitte raakt het asfalt op meerdere Nederlandse snelwegen beschadigd, met rijstroken die plotseling omhoogkomen en afgesloten worden op onder meer de A15, A270 en A59. Rijkswaterstaat en het KNMI waarschuwen weggebruikers om alleen de weg op te gaan als het echt nodig is, nu code rood voor extreme hitte geldt en spoedreparaties voor extra files en vertraging zorgen in grote delen van het land.
Files
Op verschillende snelwegen in Nederland is het asfalt omhooggekomen of gebarsten doordat het wegdek is opgewarmd tot boven de 50 graden, onder meer op de A15 bij knooppunt Gorinchem, de A270 bij Nuenen en de A59 bij Waspik. Rijkswaterstaat voert op deze trajecten spoedreparaties uit en waarschuwt weggebruikers dat zij rekening moeten houden met afsluitingen en forse vertragingen. Het KNMI heeft vanwege de aanhoudende hitte code rood of oranje afgegeven in grote delen van het land, en samen met het RIVM wordt opgeroepen alleen de weg op te gaan als dat noodzakelijk is en goed voorbereid op reis te gaan. Automobilisten wordt geadviseerd extra alert te zijn op beschadigd wegdek en de aanwijzingen van matrixborden en hulpdiensten strikt te volgen.
Guinness crowns the world's loudest person at 122.4 decibels.
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, an Australian professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier, has been recognized as the world's loudest person. Guinness World Records last week acknowledged the 58-year-old Canberra resident recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual. He yelled "now" at 122.4 decibels. That broke the previous record of 121.7 dB set by Northern Ireland schoolteacher Annalisa Flanagan in 1994. She had yelled an ear-piercing "quiet." That is in the noise range of a chain saw, a jet aircraft taking off and an ambulance siren at close range.
Joseph McGrail-Bateup, an Australian professional air conditioner cleaner and honorary town crier, has been recognized as the world's loudest person. Guinness World Records last week acknowledged the 58-year-old Canberra resident recorded the loudest ever shout by an individual. He yelled "now" at 122.4 decibels. That broke the previous record of 121.7 dB set by Northern Ireland schoolteacher Annalisa Flanagan in 1994. She had yelled an ear-piercing "quiet." That is in the noise range of a chain saw, a jet aircraft taking off and an ambulance siren at close range.
Nederland zit al jaren vast door stikstof. Nieuwe wegen, woningen, bedrijven en boeren lopen vast op vergunningen, terwijl de natuur verder onder druk staat.
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